In the Brutal Winter
by Sweet Kid 2020
Summary: He never liked seeing her weak, it scared him. But sometimes, even your heroes need you to save them.


**I got the idea for this story from a picture on Deviantart. I would like to give credit to the brilliant artist who drew it, hendocrinogeno.**

**Dude, please don't be offended if you're reading this.**

**Here's the link to the picture: hendocrinogeno/art/Please-Resists-173284585**

**I don't own the picture, or Codename: Kids Next Door.**

...

Hoagie glanced over his shoulder with concern, biting his lip. Abby had slowed down significantly after leaving the sight of their successful mission. At first, she had been running with him in tow. Now she was behind him, still loosely gripping his hand. He could hear her teeth chattering as she stopped to shiver.

Hoagie stopped and turned to her, "Abby, you don't look so good. Do you feel sick?"

She looked at him from under heavy eyelids, "I... th-think I... need to sit down..."

She suddenly slumped forward, and Hoagie fell to his knees as he caught her.

"Abby, are you okay?"

No response.

"Abby?"

He gently shook her shoulder, "C'mon, Abby, wake up! Wake up! Please!"

Abby let out a small grunt and opened her eyes a bit, shuddering and coughing in his arms.

Hoagie took off his glove and touched her forehead, "You're burning up! I need to get you back to the cabin quick!"

The teen spy carefully lifted his girlfriend onto his back and stood up, all the while telling her to stay awake and trying not to panic.

As he raced through the snow, another flurry began, making the ill girl shiver again.

"C'mon Abby, stay with me!" Hoagie pleaded, trying to be heard over the freezing wind, "We're nearly there, I can see the cabin ahead! Don't go back to sleep!"

Hoagie's legs ached, his face was numb, his arms and shoulders started tingling, but he kept going.

As he neared the cabin the door swung open, he rushed inside and collapsed to his knees. The last thing he saw was his friends rushing to him with worry.

Then everything went black.

...

The next thing Hoagie new, he was lying on his back with his feet propped up and a cold rag on his forehead. His teammates had taken his goggles off him and loosened his clothes.

"You okay, mate?" Wally asked him.

"Where's Abby?" Hoagie tried to sit up, but was stopped when his friend put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Whoa, buddy, not so fast! You gotta lie still for a while. As for Abby, she's okay. Kuki's looking after her, gave her some medicine for that fever. I gotta say, she's pretty lucky you were with her. Otherwise we might've lost her for good."

"What happened?"

"Well, when you brought her in, you passed out. Nigel and Kuki got Abby off of you and carried her into the medical room. I had to get you taken care of, and then I followed them so I could see what was going on with Abby. She looked like death warmed over. As I said, Kuki gave her some fever medicine. She's sleeping in the med room right now. I'll let you go see her in a few minutes."

"Will she be okay?"

"Should be after a while."

...

One minute, Abby was leading Hoagie away from the mountain, where they'd accomplished their part of the spy mission and could now leave the rest to the KND. The next minute, she was dragging her feet behind him as they kept moving past the pine trees and suddenly collapsed.

The rest was a bit blurry, but she remembered hearing his voice. He kept telling her to stay awake, but she was fading fast.

Now she was in the cabin's makeshift medical room.

She slept for what felt like days, fever dreams coming and going.

When she opened her eyes again, she felt like someone had poured water all over her body. She felt cool, but not like she was freezing as she had felt before. Most importantly, she felt better.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," came a voice, "feel better?"

Abby turned, smiling a bit at her boyfriend, "Yeah. How long was I out?"

"You slept the whole night. I want you to know that you did great back there, and I'm glad you're okay." Hoagie replied.

At that moment, their three friends entered the room, "Is everything okay in here?" Nigel asked.

"I'm feeling much better now, thanks to you guys. Special thanks to Hoagie here for bringing me in as fast as he did."

Hoagie grinned, "Well, you would've done the same for me."

"I would've. So, mission accomplished?"

"Mission accomplished."

"You might want to rest a little while before we leave, though." Kuki said to Abby, "We need to make sure you don't risk getting sick again, cause it could be a lot worse."

Abby nodded, "I'm okay with waiting."

Hoagie smiled and took her hand, glad that everything was okay again for now.

...

**If this story seemed a bit roo rushed, I'm really sorry. Please, no flames. It's okay to review though.**


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